A Growing Global Power

Theme 3

While increasingly involved economically with Europe,
the United States turned away politically and socially from Europe and
focused on the Americas.

Historians have traditionally viewed the decade following World War I as a period of
isolationism in which the United States retreated from the rest of the world, but there is
evidence to support the argument that America significantly increased its involvement
in international affairs. The United States led the effort to resolve the international
financial problems attributed to the war and tried to reduce naval weapons. It also
took an active role in the regional politics of the Western Hemisphere by intervening
in Mexico, the Dominican Republic, and Panama. Before and after the war, the thread
of continuity was to maintain a climate of stability in the Western Hemisphere that
safeguarded America's economic and military interests. After World War I, the United
States became increasingly involved with Europe economically, but the U.S. turned
away politically and socially from Europe and focused on the Americas.

Primary Sources

Texts

Senator Henry Cabot Lodge, Sr., speaking against the U.S. joining the League of Nations, to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, on August 12, 1919, http://www.etsu.edu/cas/history/docs/lodgeagainst.htm (accessed February 15, 2007).